Bowling ball including thumb hole lined with velvet pile



Aug. '16, 1966 o. A. CARTER 3,266,394

BOWLING BALL INCLUDING THUMB HOLE LINED WITH VELVET FILE Filed Dec. 50, 1963 2 FiG 3 FIG DALE A. CARTER INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,266,804 BOWLING BALL INCLUDING THUMB HOLE LINED WITH VELVET PILE Dale A. Carter, 1724 Shorewood Drive, Bremerton, Wash. Filed Dec. 30, 1963, 581. No. 334,139 7 Claims. (Cl. 273-63) This invention relates to bowling-ball thumb grips, and namely a grip adapted to be inserted in the thumb stall of a bowling ball as a liner for the portion of the wall of said stall against which a bowler, in course of delivering the ball, presses the underside of his thumbs outer or second phalange.

The present thumb grip, as with previously existing inserta'ble grips, comprises a tape-like strip having an adhesive coating upon the back face which is capable of adhering to the Wall of the thumb stall, and upon the front face presenting a friction surface. The friction surfaces heretofore provided have usually been composed either of cork or rubber, and are objectionable from several aspects. Perhaps the most frequently voiced objection to cork as a friction surfacing is that it becomes slick after continued usage. This can be attributed to the cellular nature of cork. Skin oils from a users thumb collect within the cells and are exuded by pressure of the thumb. Cork grips are also fragile. They wrinkle quite easily when being inserted, and once the adhesive backing takes hold it is extremely difficult to dislodge the grip and change its position without having the cork crack.

The principal objection to rubber as a liner for a thumb stall is that a thumb tends to hang up on rubber. Uniform ball delivery is diflicult and blistering frequently results.

P urposing to eliminate the above and other disadvantages of previously existing thumb grips, the present invention for its principal object aims to provide a thumb grip having a pile velvet" surface, thus enabling the thumb to slide easily over the same, and wherein the upstanding loops which compose said pile yield upon subjection to pressure from the thumb but exert against said pressure a spring resistance establishing for the thumb a frictional hold more effective for its purpose than the friction provided 'by thumb grips previously available. Further objects of the invention are to provide a thumb grip which is unusually durable and can be easily removed from a stall and its position changed therein with little if any likelihood of damage to the grip, a grip which will not absorb skin oils, and a grip which evidences no tendency to blister the skin as the thumb slides over same in the release of the ball. These and other objects and advantages will appear and be understood in the course of the following description and claims.

The invention consists in the novel construction and in the adaptation and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing:

FIGURE 1 is an elevational view portraying a bowling ball having an insertable grip embodying teachings of the present invention applied to its thumb stall.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of said grip shown removed from the thumb stall; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary transverse vertical sectional view drawn to a greatly magnified scale on line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

The material of which the present thumb grip is composed is illustrated and described in US. Pat. No. 3,009,235, issued Nov. 21, 1961 to International Velcro Company, Estab., Nyon, Switzerland, as assignee of the inventor, George de Mestral, and in an earlier US. Patent, No. 2,717,437. It is one of two fabrics intended to complement one another in providing a separable Patented August 16, 1966 "ice fastening device usable for much the same purpose that slider-type zippers are used. Layers of the two fabrics instantly attach themselves and hold securely when pressed together, but can be readily separated by peeling one from the other. Both fabrics are woven from artificial material and present rows of loops, but while the loops forming the pile for one fabric are or may be closed and desirably are hard-brushed so that the several filaments which produce the thread for each loop are separated from one another, the other fabric has each of its pile-forming loops cut within the length of one of the two legs of the loop so that the bite of the loop, remaining intact with the other leg, forms a hook. Warp threads of the fabric produce the hook-forming loops. A salient and necessary characteristic of the hooks is that they admit to being set to a predetermined form and have an elasticity which permits the same to yield to pressure yet snap-back when the pressure is released. Nylon is the material which International Velcro Company prefers to employ for its warp threads in that the same is capable of being ideally set by heat into a predetermined form with near-permanent elasticity. It is this velvet-type fabric, with its nylon warp threads heat-set and cut to produce hooks, which the present invention uses as the material composing the thumb grip. Designated in the drawing by the numeral 10, such thumb grip is in the form of a length of tape pre-coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive 11 (Velcros Code PS0 is suitable) and has its rows 12 of hook-forming loops 13 extending, by preference, transversely of the tape. All of the loops which occur in each of the several rows have both legs lying more or less in the plane of the row. This will be readily understood from an inspection of FIG. 3. The

tape used need be little wider than the width of a bowlers thumb and when inserted within the thumb-hole 14 of a bowling ball 15 occupies much the position in which it is portrayed in FIG. 1, namely with its longitudinal median line parallel with and offset moderately in a clock-wise direction from a plane projected radially of the thumbholes axis toward the finger holes 16.

It will be understood that the illustrated cross-section of the tape, greatly magnified in FIG. 3, is not intended to accurately portray the material which is employed. The weft threads 17 of the material are actually close and firmly woven. Principal and supplementary warp threads 18 and 20, respectively, likewise occur in such closely spaced relation that studied inspection is necessary in order for the naked eye to detect the individuality of the loops 13. The loops are formed by the supplementary Warp threads, which preferably are monofilament. The particular point at which one leg of the loop is cut so as to produce a book 21 is not critical but desirably should be sufficiently elevated above the base fabric that when a bowlers thumb presses upon the pile, the straight legs 22, as distinguished from the goose-necked legs 23, will impose some frictional impediment to the slide motion of a bowlers thumb across said pile, This is not to imply that thermally-set loops which are uncut will not function for my purpose. Such uncut loops are less desirable, however, in that they have greater resistance to compression and exhibit less frictional resistance.

It is desirable that the base fabric, as well as said loops, be formed from a synthetic thread so that skin oils, perspiration, and other moistures will not be absorbed.

It is thought that the invention will have been clearly understood from the foregoing detailed description of my now-preferred illustrated embodiment. Changes in the details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention and it is accordingly my intention that no limitations be implied and that the hereto annexed claims be given the broadest interpretation to which the employed language fairly admits.

What I claim is:

1. A bowling ball having drill-holes which provide a thumb stall and finger holes, and having the thumbstall lined upon the wall thereof which is proximal to the finger holes with a thumb grip comprised of a length of flexible tape provided upon the back with a wall-adhering adhesive coating and faced with a velvet pile, the pile being composed of closely spaced rows of myriad resilient fingers standing erect and each comprised of a heat set thread of synthetic resinous material.

2. Structure according to claim 1 in which the rows extend transverse to the direction in which the thumb slides as it is withdrawn from the stall, and wherein the fingers are each comprised of a loop approximately wholly contained within a plane common to the loops of the other fingers in the row.

3. Structure according to claim 2 in which the loops are each cut at a point intermediate the ends of one of the two legs of the loop so that the bight of the loop remains intact with the other leg and defines a hookshaped end pointing downwardly toward the tape.

4. Structure according to claimv 1 in which the tape comprises a base fabric woven from synthetic resin material and having the fingers of the pile rising as loops from warp components of the base fabrics weave.

5. Structure according to claim 4 in which the adhesive coating is of the pressure sensitive type permitting the tape to be stripped from the wall of the stall and its position shifted therein.

6. Structure according to claim 4 in which the loops are each cut at a point intermediate the ends of one of the two legs of the loop so that a portion of the loop which includes the bight remains intact with the other leg of the loop and forms a hook-shaped end pointing downwardly toward the base fabric.

7. Structure according to claim. 4 in which the liner is so applied to the thumb stall that the warp threads from which said loops rise extend transverse to the direction in which the thumb slides as it is withdrawn from the stall.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,021,490 3/1912 SCully 27363 2,369,804 2/ 1945 Schoolfield et al.

2,777,693 1/1957 Mitchell 27363 3,105,972 10/1963 Christopher 273166 X 3,128,514 4/1964 Parker et al 273166 X DELBERT B. LOWE, Primary Examiner.

G. J. MARLO, Assistant Examiner. 

1. A BOWLING BALL HAVING DRILL-HOLES WHICH PROVIDE A THUMB STALL AND FINGER HOLES, AND HAVING THE THUMBSTALL LINED UPON THE WALL THEREOF WHICH IS PROXIMAL TO THE FINGER HOLES WITH A THUMB GRIP COMPRISES OF A LENGTH OF FLEXIBLE TAPE PROVIDED UPON THE BACK WITH A WALL-ADHERING ADHESIVE COATING AND FACED WITH A VELVET PILE, THE PILE BEING COMPOSED OF CLOSELY SPACED ROWS OF MYRIAD RESILIENT FINGERS STANDING ERECT AND EACH COMPRISES OF A HEAT SET THREAD OF SYNTHETIC MATERIAL. 